Skilled Trades
Agricultural Equipment Operators
Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
Median salary
$42,580
Typical range
$31k – $58k
Job outlook
+8% (faster than average)
AI exposure
Plan a path to Agricultural Equipment Operators
Education
Typical entry: No degree required
Plan my path to this →Typical progression
Junior Agricultural Equipment Operators
Entry / Junior
$31,240
~2 yrs to advance
Agricultural Equipment Operators
Established
$42,580
~3 yrs to advance
Senior Agricultural Equipment Operators
Senior
$50,185
Key skills
A typical day
- •Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.
- •Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
- •Spray fertilizer or pesticide solutions to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases, using hand sprayers.
- •Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.
- •Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.
Fields of study
Any field
Top colleges for Skilled Trades
Explore all- Purdue University50% admit · $78,000 grad pay
- Ohio State University53% admit · $68,000 grad pay
- Pennsylvania State University55% admit · $70,000 grad pay
Reputation-based selection; stats shown are outcome data per school.